The Perth Wildcats are determined to make the most of a rare week with the entire squad together before their Australian representatives leave for Qatar.

Wildcats import Terrico White trained for the first time with his new teammates yesterday and he will have only two more sessions before Angus Brandt, Jesse Wagstaff, Mitch Norton and Nick Kay leave for national duties.

Perth coach Trevor Gleeson is still considering his top-up options for pre-season clashes against Adelaide on Friday and Sunday. But he said quality training sessions were the priority this week.

“This week is really important for us,” Gleeson said.

“This is the only time we’re going to be together just before the (NBL) Blitz. We’ve got to have some quality trainings with our full squad — especially with Mitch and Nick still developing into their role on the team.”

The 36ers will also be undermanned for the pre-season games. Nathan Sobey, Daniel Johnson and Anthony Drmic are in the Boomers squad and the team hasn’t played since losing Mitch Creek to the NBA.

Gleeson said Friday night’s game at the Bendat Basketball Centre and Sunday’s clash at HBF Arena in Joondalup would be about experimenting.

“It’s going to be a little bit different. Obviously losing the four Boomers guys will put a bit of hole in us but it will also give us a bit of an opportunity,” he said.

“We’ve got a young fella, Rhys Vague, who will step up and play. It gives us a great chance with Terrico to play him in a couple of different positions and have a look at him. Hopefully we’re not too bad.

“We’ll probably play a little bit of small ball, missing our three bigs out there. That gives us a bit of a look at playing four guards at once and one big.

“We’ll experiment with that but it should give us a good chance to find out where we are defensively with our guards. I’m looking forward to seeing that.”

Gleeson said White impressed him in his first training session and the American’s ability to combine with NBL MVP Bryce Cotton had been important.

“He had a good first day,” Gleeson said.

“He’s a really good threat from the perimeter and he picks up things very well. First day is a real big tick for us. He’ll get a lot more comfortable as he knows our system and the structure.